[tx_eggman]

... the rules are rigged to make this form of agriculture seem much more sustainable than it actually is. (the rice seedlings are planted in one field, then those with attractive growth habits are selected and hand transplanted into a second field, but in calculating yield only the second field is considered).

Agnes ... care to comment?

[Black Agnes]

Read the cornell page here:

http://sri.ciifad.cornell.edu/aboutsri/methods/index.html

They are transplanted ONCE. These farmers had previously been transplanting 3 or 4 in a clump and transplanting them several WEEKS later. They’ve ALWAYS transplanted them though. They can’t afford the seed to broadcast a crop. And broadcast seed would be too thickly planted for this method to work anyways.

BTW, I compared the yield with this method and it kicks to hell anything I found from University of Arkansas on yield per acre. Yes, I converted acre to hectare.

Can this be used on a 500 acre field? No, clearly not in the current means. HOWEVER, it’s the method that’s giving the yield. The IMPLEMENTATION of this method just happens to be human intensive. Mechanization is our friend. Because nobody ever used a combine before. Or a seeder. Or any other mechanized farm equipment.

What this is is a fabulous opportunity for some techie with a bent towards agriculture to automate the transplant and surface weeding techniques. Which should be ‘easy’ compared to broadcast seeding methods since the plants are on a predetermined grid planting.

Think Roomba, only in agriculture usefulness terms.

And you wouldn’t literally be pouring profits down the drain with the liquid herbicide out the tip of the sprayer. Repeated. And repeated. And repeated.